Archive for: Interviews

Who’s up for some BIG Owlkids Books news? Everybody? Okay! Spring books hit bookstore shelves yesterday, and among them are Max Finder Mystery Collected Casebook Vol. 5 (by Ramon Perez, Liam O’Donnell, and yours truly) and a really cool non-fiction book for the OWL age group entitled You Just Can’t Help It. It was written by Jeff Szpirglas, an author, teacher, former OWL staffer, and all-around great guy.*

I caught up with Jeff to ask him about his new book, his future plans, and even his favourite subject while he was in school. Cool, huh?

On with the questions!

Q: Your new book, You Just Can’t Help It, is all about wacky human behaviour. What inspired you to write it?

Jeff: One of my favorite books is called The Naked Ape, which was written by a zoologist named Desmond Morris. It’s a fascinating look at human beings from his perspective as a scientist who studies animals. I wish I’d found a version of it when I was younger. That really was the seed of the book, to find interesting examples of human behavior along the lines that Desmond Morris explored. I ended up unearthing a lot of other research and experiments as well, which all ended up in the book.

Jeff: I’m very excited about my first novel for middle readers, which should come out this fall. It’s a tale about a boy with a disembodied — and very evil — eyeball. It’s called Evil Eye and everyone who reads this should read it. There will be plenty of jokes and scary, gross things. So yes, I’m still obsessed with fear and disgusting stuff. Big surprise.

(I’m also busy researching for a new book about colds, which are admittedly also disgusting.)

Q: What’s one thing you just can’t help doing?

Jeff: When I get nervous, I sometimes get tics — not the parasitic creatures that feed on your blood, but small little bodily reactions like sniffling or clicking my throat. Also, whenever I play the piano, I feel compelled to always end off playing the same chord. A “G” chord. I think I’ll go play one right now.

Q: In between writing and teaching, do you have any spare time? If so, what do you like to do with it?

Jeff: I think I just used up my spare time answering this question. With luck, I might get some more next week!

When I do encounter precious nuggets of time that aren’t spent teaching or writing, I try to use them wisely. Currently I am training our kitten not to jump on the kitchen counter. It’s not been very successful. I also like to play soccer, listen to heavy metal music, and jump around — often when listening to heavy metal or playing soccer. It’s quite possible that I’m modeling several undesirable behaviors to our kitten.

Q: Last question, and it’s a tough one: would you rather wear tap-dancing shoes OR ballet shoes every day for the rest of your life?

Jeff: Tap dancing shoes — no question! That’s mostly because my feet are pretty big. I’d make a terrible ballet dancer. Come to think of it, I’d make a terrible tap dancer as well, but it’s February while I’m writing this, and I don’t think ballet slippers would be wise in the snow.

Bonus question: Because you’re a teacher, I have to ask: what was your favourite subject when you were in school?

Jeff: Recess! But in terms of academic subjects, without a doubt, science. It’s also my favorite subject to teach. Right now the Grade 4’s are learning about rocks, Grade 5’s are building structures, and the Grade 6 students I teach are creating various vehicles for flight. I wish the Ontario curriculum had more about the science of farts, but you can’t win them all.

Okay, so I lied. That was actually six questions, but Jeff was very kind and answered them all. Many thanks to Jeff for that.

Click here for more info on You Just Can’t Help It. And hit the general Owlkids store for news about all the other new Spring books!

Talk to you soon.

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

*Here’s how great a guy Jeff is: at the Owlkids table at the Toronto Word on the Street festival in September, we scheduled him to sign some books and meet some readers. When he finished up, he noticed how swamped we were and just stuck around to help us sell books. It was a beautiful Sunday in the city! He could’ve been doing anything! Like I said, he’s an all-around great guy.

Patricia Storms is an award-winning cartoonist and illustrator. And she draws Chirp! Patricia lives in Toronto with her husband and their two cats, in an old house that is full of books. She works really hard to illustrate the Chirp cover and to write and illustrate the Chirp comic each month. Some of our readers got to ask her a few questions:

Q:Why does Chirp look different than he used to? – Felicity, 4

A: Chirp looks different because he is now being drawn by a different cartoonist – me! Chirp used to be drawn by Bob Kain. But in 2010, Bob handed the job down to me. No two cartoonists draw exactly the same, so Chirp and his friends will look a bit different from now on.

Q:How do you come up with your ideas for the comics? – Skye

A: That’s a good question! I’m not exactly sure, but I do know it helps to take long walks and hot baths, and read lots of books when I’m trying to come up with fun ideas.

Q:When does Chirp not wear his red boots? – Thomas, 6

A: Maybe when he has a bath?

Q: How do you keep the colours inside the lines? – Wendy

A: When I colour Chirp, I work on a computer. The computer helps me stay inside the lines. The more I practise colouring, the better I get. I like to practise drawing and colouring every day.

Q:What type of birds are Chirp and his friends? – Sophie, 4

A: I’m not a bird expert (bird experts are called ornithologists), but I do know that Chirp, Squawk and Tweet are very special birds who have very interesting adventures!

Q: When is your birthday? – Timmy, 3, and Miranda, 5

A: My birthday is this month! It’s March 28th.

Do you have a question for Patricia? Send it to chirp@owlkids.com

Jackie, Chirp Editor

P.S. Patricia also writes and illustrates books, too. Her latest picture book The Pirate and the Penguin was chosen as one of the best books of 2011 by the Canadian Toy Testing Council.

Hey all. If you’ve ever taken a look at the “Weird Zone” section in OWL (or this post), you’re familiar with the awesomely funny work of artist Dave Whamond. But I thought you might like to learn a bit more about him, so I decided to do something about it!

I sent Dave five questions, and he was kind enough to answer them all — he even answered one in the form of a comic. Cool, huh?

On with the questions!

Q: Where is your favourite place to work?

Dave: I have a nice studio in my house, which is perfect for me. I used to work in a busy studio downtown with a bunch of other illustrators and designers. It was great but WAAAAY too distracting. I find that I get a lot more work done without interruptions, especially when it comes to thinking up ideas. Those people were just too darn fun.

Q: Your illustrations make a lot of OWL readers laugh. What makes you laugh?

Dave: Where do I start? I guess I could sum it up by saying that I like quirky, offbeat humour. I still love watching cartoons, too. And now that they make cartoon movies in 3-D, are you kiddin’ me? What could be better than that? At the other end of the spectrum, I like simple things, too, like laughing at the misfortune of others on America’s Funniest Home Videos and YouTube. I laugh out loud at a guy trying to ride a motorbike for the first time and losing control and zooming off into a bush. Gets me every time.

Q: If you weren’t an artist, you’d be…

Dave: A mad scientist. Mostly because I like to do an evil laugh. BWA-HAA-HAAA! Seriously, I would definitely be doing something creative. And I would be my own boss. Once you work for yourself, it would be difficult to do anything else. I also have taught illustration at the Alberta College of Art in the past and that can be rewarding, too. It’s great to see students that you have taught out there making a big splash in the world.

Q: Do you have a catchphrase?

Dave: I used to say “Get outta town!” all the time when someone told me something exciting or hard to believe. In fact, I haven’t said that for a while — maybe I’ll try to bring it back. Everyone out there, start saying “Get outta town!” all the time. We can start a trend!

Q: Would you rather have three eyes or three ears?

Dave:

Excellent! Many, many thanks to Dave for answering all my questions — not to mention his fantastic work in OWL every month. It’s truly a pleasure!

By the way, you and I aren’t the only ones who recognize Dave’s genius. Earlier this year, he won the Reuben Award (given out by the National Cartoonists Society) for book illustration for My Think-A-Ma-Jink, his first picture book with Owlkids. Congratulations again, Dave!

In the April issue of OWL, we challenged you to come up with questions about the environment for Elin Kelsey for a chance to win her latest book, Not Your Typical Book About the Environment. Well, you answered the challenge — big-time! We received a ton of questions, and Elin drew five of them from the pile.

Read on for her answers!

Q: If we continue the way we are, will the hole in the ozone layer become so big that there is no ozone layer? If so, how soon?
— Emily

Elin: The really good news, Emily, is that the ozone hole is healing! In fact, the steps that world governments took together to ban CFCs — the chemicals largely responsible for damaging of the ozone layer — are considered by many to be one of the great examples of countries working together to help the environment.

Atmospheric ozone protects us from cancer-causing UV radiation. Human-made chemicals, like some aerosol sprays and refrigerator coolants, chemically react with ozone to create new compounds that don’t block out radiation — that’s what they mean by a “thinning” ozone layer. But thanks to international bans on ozone-depleting chemicals that began about 20 years ago, the ozone situation is looking much more hopeful.

Q: When global warming gets really bad, does that mean it will get really hot or really cold? I saw this movie and due to global warming the Earth got so cold that no one could live here anymore, so why it is called global warming?
— Mara

Elin: With 2010 bringing snow to Florida and not enough to the Canadian Olympics, lots of people are asking the same question you are, Mara. The wonderful and perplexing thing about life on Earth is that it is all connected, often in ways that we can’t see or directly experience. We can’t “see” a build-up of greenhouse gases in the air — like the CO2 produced when we burn gasoline to power cars. Yet because so much CO2, methane, and other gases are now concentrated in the atmosphere, it traps more of the heat from the sun, and makes the Earth warmer. That’s how the name“global warming” came to be.

However, most scientists now use the term “climate change” instead of global warming, because as the world gets warmer, it’s not just the temperature that’s changing. Winds and ocean currents move heat around the globe in ways that cool some areas, warm others, and change the amount of rain and snowfall. I guess that movie was more science fiction than fact!

Q: How does the little bit of energy that you save make a big difference?
— Kaitlyn

Elin: Whenever I get discouraged about the huge size of environmental problems, I look at the compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) on my desk and smile. What if everyone on Earth switched, like I did, from “ordinary” incandescent light bulbs to more energy-efficient CFLs? Well, I’m happy to report, we may be lucky enough to find out. In 2007, Australia became the first country on Earth to ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs. Canada has pledged to do the same thing by 2012. More than 40 countries have pledged to follow suit.

Millions of people each committing to make small changes to the lighting in their homes makes a mighty fine impact on the environment. If every home in the United States replaces even one light bulb with a CFL, it will save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars. If everyone on Earth joins in, we will cut the global lighting demand for electricity almost in half.

Q: How would you rank Canada (on a scale of 1 to 5) being eco-friendly, and how are we eco about the environment?
— Colleen

Elin: Ranking is always a tricky business because it depends on what you choose to rank and what evidence you use to justify your scores. Yale and Columbia Universities created an Environmental Performance Index that ranks how well 163 countries do on indicators related to the environment. Iceland, Switzerland, Costa Rica, and Sweden received full marks. But on a scale of 1 to 5, they’d only give Canada a 3.

One of the reasons our score is lower is because Canadians have a BIG ecological footprint. We use more than our share of the Earth’s resources to heat our homes, grow our food, make our stuff, and so on. According to Mathis Wackernagel, the co-originator of the ecological footprint concept, the best way to get your footprint down to the right size is:

1. Gauge what you really need versus what you think you want;
2. Learn to be happy with what you have rather than trying to get more stuff; and
3. Focus on the big items â like how energy efficient your home is, how you get to school, how often your family drives places â rather than worrying about every small, individual action you take.

Canadians are, happily, quite “eco” when it comes to our feelings. Recent polls show that most Canadians care a lot about the environment and are willing to pay more for an environmentally friendly home. We love wildlife so much, we put animals on our money!

Q: What have people done and are going to do to help the environment?
— Mike

Elin: People working together and demanding changes have resulted in laws to protect endangered species; bans on whale hunting; international teams of scientists working together to combat climate change; and the creation of huge new protected areas on land and in the oceans. Governments of countries in the European Union (EU) are leading the way in recycling old computers, cell phones and other electronic gadgets. That’s a vital step because every year, humans create 20 to 50 million tonnes of “e-waste” that contain lead, cadmium, mercury, and other toxic chemicals.

There are endless choices about how you and I and everyone else can create a happy life for ourselves and millions of other species. Ride a bike. Share stuff. Play outside. Eat less meat. Be silly. Play more. Choose an issue and commit to changing it, even if it’s just a little. Recycle cell phones. Keep playing. Reduce. Reimagine. Rejoice!

—

Cool, huh? But there’s more! Elin pulled out five questions for answering, and we pulled out one to determine the winner of our contest. And the winner is… Ally I.! Congratulations, Ally I., you’ve won a copy of Not Your Typical Book About the Environment.

And that’s it, OWL readers. Many, many thanks to Elin for participating in this special Earth Day post. One way we can thank her is by answering a special question she has for us. What makes you feel hopeful about the environment? Post a comment below with your thoughts!